Owner battles affect 'Nique Hawks legend unable to join as co-owner By TIM TUCKER The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 03/09/06 The best player in Atlanta Hawks history has been benched in his bid to join the team's ownership group by the continuing legal battle among the owners. Dominique Wilkins' planned purchase of a small stake in the Hawks and Thrashers was considered such a formality that the teams listed him as part of ownership in this season's official publications as well as on their Web sites. Now, however, Wilkins' name has been removed from the ownership roster on the Web sites and in new publications, and the teams acknowledge that his planned purchase has been put aside, at least for now. "Due to the pending litigation, the timing is inappropriate" to complete the transaction, Hawks-Thrashers spokesman Tom Hughes said Wednesday in response to questions about the matter. "Dominique is the ultimate Hawks icon and is our vice president of basketball," Hughes added. "In that role, he makes significant contributions to the organization in all areas of basketball, business and in the community." Hawks-Thrashers part-owner Steve Belkin is engaged in an ever-deepening legal battle with the other owners — principally Bruce Levenson, Ed Peskowitz, Michael Gearon Jr. and Rutherford Seydel — over Belkin's approximately 30 percent stake. In a recent court filing, Belkin contends that the other owners breached their agreement to buy him out and that he therefore is entitled to buy them out at cost. The other owners disagree. "We're going through a lot of stuff right now," Wilkins said. "I just agreed to concentrate on the basketball side of things. The legal things — let the lawyers handle that. I'm just leaving it up to them to handle this thing with Belkin." Wilkins, who had an agreement to buy about a 1 percent stake, said the controversy has not dissuaded him from wanting to join ownership someday. "It'd be stupid for me to say I don't want to be an owner," he said. "Unfortunately, the stuff that is going on — hopefully it will get rectified in the future. This is something that from the ownership side . . . is going to take some time. "It doesn't really help us publicity-wise," Wilkins said. "People look at us and say, 'Why is this going on?' For whatever reason, this is happening, and you have to deal with it. I haven't been involved in all that stuff." Wilkins, known as "The Human Highlight Film" when he played for the Hawks from 1982 until 1994, said he'll remain fully engaged with the team on basketball, public relations and marketing matters. "My role is to help the basketball team as much as I possibly can and promote the Hawks," he said. "The Hawks are my life. . . . I see myself helping push this franchise to that next level. I think all the other distractions are not fair to the team, but something you have to get through and correct." The issue of who is — and isn't — listed as an owner surfaced in a Feb. 24 hearing in a Maryland court, although Wilkins' name wasn't mentioned. One of Belkin's attorney's, John Fabiano, handed the court a program from the Feb. 22 Hawks game that included photos of other owners but not of Belkin. "I'd like to show you how petty this has become," Fabiano said to the judge, according to a transcript of the hearing. A lawyer for the other owners, Bruce Marcus, objected, calling the game program "totally extraneous to the proceedings before the court." Fabiano replied: "It is simply to demonstrate that one of the benefits of ownership is you're identified as an owner. If they take your picture out of the program and they include everybody else's, it makes it look like they've [paid] you the hundreds of millions of dollars they owe you when they haven't paid you a dime." The judge overruled the objection and entered the program as plaintiff's exhibit No. 1. 资料来源 http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/hawks/stories/0309hawks.html -- "ridiculous" --

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